Art is local, accessible in Chelmsford

Friday

Jun 13, 2014 at 2:46 PM

By Leslie Koreskychelmsford@wickedlocal.com

When we visit museums and galleries and sit in concert halls and peruse the glossy pages of coffee table tomes we experience Capital A Art.Public television thanks its patrons for their endowments; museums reserve wall space for contributors’ names. Art is Big City Important, famous, formidable and grand. Art is serious, pricey stuff and its patrons are seriously well heeled. Furthermore, art can be truly understood by only the well educated and trained.Let’s face it, most of us have long bought into this as elitist nonsense, which purports that only the rich can support art and only the self-consciously intellectual can appreciate it.As publicist for the Chelmsford Center for the Arts, I am in the building on a regular basis. I often stroll the first floor hallway, which serves as an ever-changing gallery for the work of our resident artists. I have enjoyed the many-themed exhibits in the formal gallery. The CCA is the official home of our Community Concert and Jazz Bands, which entertain residents throughout the year. Since its opening, the center has brought children’s theater to Chelmsford, giving youngsters the chance to perform and the rest of us the chance to see what our talented kids can do. Musicians, singers and storytellers play to audiences in the cozy cabaret, where the monthly Open Mic series gives local patrons a shot at performing themselves. Upstairs the grander auditorium, with its very grand Steinway, is the home of Chelmsford’ own Illumination Opera. This past winter the company, with contributing artists from the Boston Conservatory, performed Mozart’s "The Magic Flute." The production featured Chelmsford High School senior Elizabeth Sperry, one of the top young flutists in the nation.And that magnificent Steinway is attracting professional musicians of the highest caliber and in every musical genre. A couple of months ago I got to hear a glorious Boston-area soprano perform with a prestigious chamber ensemble. As my friends and I were leaving the auditorium, the closing line from the film musical, "Meet Me in St. Louis" came to mind. As the family is staring out in awe at the World’s Fair spectacle, Judy Garland’s character says, "And to think, it’s right here where we live, right here in St. Louis." That line captured my sentiment – not just in regard to that evening’s entertainment, but for all the presentations I have enjoyed at the CCA – a five-minute drive from my house!The artistic world is all around us – here in Chelmsford and in every nook and cranny town in Massachusetts – inhabited by our neighbors and colleagues, friends and family. It’s the people who perform for tips at the Java Room and Main Street Market in Concord, and my friends who sing with Westford Chorus. It’s my neighbor who has a studio at Lowell’s Western Ave. lofts, and the local artists who display their work at Westford’s Art on Main Gallery, the Chelmsford Library, and the Gallery at the CCA.Painters, photographers and performers want to share with every one of us the things that they create. They need us to watch them dance, to hear them sing and to see what they have put on canvas. They need to speak to us through their chosen media. We are patrons when we watch and when we listen.Each of us can be a patron of the arts in small and meaningful ways. There is a wealth of affordable original art in our local galleries and art shows. When you replace a mass-produced picture from a "big box" store with a piece of original art work you enrich your own life and help an artist continue his or her work. Do you know someone who performs? Support them by attending his or her performances. It makes you a better friend and you will enjoy yourself, besides.Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil once famously observed that "all politics is local."So is art.